Here are my notes on this topic:
1. Applied Classical Conditioning
- Watson
- Little Albert
- J. Walter Thompson Advertising
- Ponds cold cream
- Maxwell house “coffee break”
- pestimonials
- Pebeco toothpaste
- seduction, smoking is okay if use Pebeco
- Advertising
2. Aversion Learning
- Avoidance : stopping from doing (I control)
- Aversion: Strong dislike or disinclination (external control)
- Taste Aversion
- Fairly common
- Sushi
- Chemotherapy: associate drug nausea with food
- Toxic, poisonous or spoiled food
- Operant or classical conditioning?
- Not require cognitive awareness
- One trial
- Long time between $ and effect
- Hot dog at lunch, sick at night
- Garcia, John
- Garcia effect
- Coincidental, not food caused
- Rats given sweetened water before radiation
- 3 groups
- No radiation chose sweet. 80%
- Mild radiation mix 40%
- Strong radiation tap 10%
- Choice of sweetened or tap water
- Moral: stimulus used in classical conditioning matters
- An internal stimulus produced an internal response while an external stimulus produced an external response; but an external stimulus would not produce an internal response and vice versa
- Seligman
- Sauce-bearmaise syndrome
- Risk Aversion
- Prefer outcomes with low uncertainty
- Even if can get more reward
- More predictable but less profitable
- Rotter
- Behavior = likelihood and size of reward
- Kahneman & Tversky
- Tend to avoid risk if choice is between gains
- Seek risks when choice is between losses
- For example, most people prefer a certain gain of 3,000 to an 80% chance of a gain of 4,000. When posed the same problem, but for losses, most people prefer an 80% chance of a loss of 4,000 to a certain loss of 3,000.
- Brain
- Risk aversion in right inferior frontal gyrus
- Deal or No Deal
- People are more risk averse in limelight
- Investors
- Investors trade more frequently and more speculatively with online trading (instead of phone)
- Loss Aversion
- Prefer avoiding losses
- Loss preceeds loss aversion
- Previously experienced (loss)
- Start another relationship after breakup
- Expected to happen (risk)
- Loss aversion is twice as strong as risk
- Much worse to lose $100 than satisfaction of winning $100
- Expectations
- belief about an outcome; can create loss aversion even if nothing bad has happened
- Framing
- $5 discount or as a $5 surcharge
3. Avoidance Learning
- Bad experience
- Don’t go back
- Put on sun glasses before going out
- Avoidance parados: no stimulus, so what maintains behavior
- Discriminated avoidance experiment
- Neutral stimulus (light) is followed by aversive (shock)
- Press lever to prevent aversive stimulus: avoidance
- Free-operant avoidance learning
- No neutral stimulus
- Periodically gets shock unless press lever periodically
4. Escape Learning
- Bad experience
- Get out
- Behavior terminates aversive stimulus
- Cover eyes, cover ears, leave location
- Negative reinforcement
- Neutral stimulus (light) is followed by aversive (shock)
- Press lever to terminate aversive stimulus: escape
5. PTSD
- Mental disorder?
- Traumatic event occurs
- Most don’t have symptoms
- War: 75% no symptoms
- Any person
- Any age
- Symptoms after event
- Symptoms within first 3 months
- Flashback: relive episode
- Disorder: cause disruption
- Longer than month
- Heredity?
- Twins in Vietnam war, more likely
- Smaller hippocampus more likely
- Heightened startle response
- Brain
- High levels of cortisol, can’t reset
- Low levels of serotonin (regulate emotion)
- Low levels of dopamine (what’s important)
- Less active ventromedial areas (regulation of emotion)
- Smaller hippocampus (emotional memories not processed)
- May self-medicate with drugs and alcohol
- Shell shock
- Combat neurosis
